Sonia Gandhi, Women MPs Back Jaya Bachchan As They Stage Walkout

NEW DELHI, (ANI): Opposition parties led by Sonia Gandhi walked out of the Rajya Sabha on August 9 afternoon in a solid show of support for Jaya Bachchan.

Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan on August 9 demanded an apology from vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar after a heated exchange of words over BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari’s remarks against Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge.

Outside parliament, she told reporters, “I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not schoolchildren. Some of us are senior citizens. I was upset with the tone and especially when the Leader of Opposition stood up to speak, he switched off the mike.”

“How can you do this? You have to allow the Leader of the Opposition to speak…I mean using unparliamentary words every time which I do not want to say in front of you all. He uses words like nuisance and ‘Buddhiheen'” said Jaya Bachchan a Samajwadi Party MP.

She further said, “He told me I may be a celebrity, and that he doesn’t care about that. I am not asking him to care. I am saying I am a member of Parliament. This is my fifth term. I know what I am saying.”

“The way things are being spoken in Parliament these days, nobody has ever spoken before. I want an apology” she added.

Bachchan was flanked by several other women MPs including Sonia Gandhi. The women MPs backed her claims against the RS Chairman. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said Jaya Bachchan, “comes with vastly more experience than the Vice President himself. He cannot disrespect the Member of Parliament.”

TMC MP Dola Sen said, “She (SP MP Jaya Bachchan) has not come here as a celebrity. She has come here as an elected Member of Parliament.”